Willis couple celebrates 80 years of marriage; active, never bored

Mary Lou and Ralph Riggs sit in their front yard on a Tuesday afternoon in Willis. The Riggs celebrated their 80th anniversary on Monday, November 4.

Mary Lou and Ralph Riggs sit in their front yard on a Tuesday afternoon in Willis. The Riggs celebrated their 80th anniversary on Monday, November 4.

Photo: Staff Photo By Ana Ramirez

Photo: Staff Photo By Ana Ramirez

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Mary Lou and Ralph Riggs sit in their front yard on a Tuesday afternoon in Willis. The Riggs celebrated their 80th anniversary on Monday, November 4.

Mary Lou and Ralph Riggs sit in their front yard on a Tuesday afternoon in Willis. The Riggs celebrated their 80th anniversary on Monday, November 4.

Photo: Staff Photo By Ana Ramirez

Willis couple celebrates 80 years of marriage; active, never bored

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How do a forever married couple top celebrating 80 years of marriage? For Ralph and Mary Lou Riggs, of Willis, it means celebrating Ralph’s 101st birthday on Tuesday.

Both still drive, and the couple continue to live in the same one-level modest home they moved to from Galena Park in 1968, when Ralph retired.

At 99 years of age, Mary Lou still attends water therapy classes each week for exercise, while Ralph continues to do his daily chores and feed his pony on the 31 acres they own north of Willis.

Married Nov. 4, 1933, in Bedford, Pennsylvania, the couple toasted 80 years together Nov. 2 with an anniversary party at Cilantros Restaurant in Willis. They have six adult children, 17 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and one great- great- grandson, who was born only this past September.

Ralph has lived through 17 presidents and can name them, Mary Lou said. He was born when William Taft was president.

“In the late 20s, the economy was real prosporous,” Ralph said. “I think Calvin Coolidge was a real sharp president.”

But whatever their ups and downs over the past 80 years, the couple wholeheartedly agree on one thing: the secret to a long marriage is being friends with each other.

“Treat your husband like he’s a friend, not like he’s something to drag around. He’s not,” Mary Lou said. “Treat him like yourself, the way you liked to be treated.”

Mary Lou insists they’ve never worked through real difficult times, only “medium times,” she said.

“You have to take the bitter with the better,” she said.

They met while growing up in Pennsylvania, both sophomores in high school, when she noticed him, the new boy in school.

“He moved to my town from a different place,” Mary Lou said. “Of course, when a new boy comes to school, he’s very popular.”

When Ralph began to struggle with his grades in school, his father removed him from school to work on the family farm for a year.

“He decided he liked school better and went back to school,” she said.

The two married when Mary Lou was 19 and Ralph was 20.

“My dad had to sign for me,” she said. “The legal age was 21. They let him slide because he turned 21 eight days later.”

Ralph left the farm in 1936 and traveled to Texas to look for work. He got a job in the steel mill. He sent for Mary Lou and four children to meet him in Texas.

“When we got married, we were lucky to have anything on the table (to eat), we didn’t have any money back then,” Ralph said. “I made $24.95 a week.”

Mary Lou and her sister loaded up in a car with six accompanying children for the cross-country road trip — made with no air conditioning — and drove all the way to Texas, she said.

“I drove the whole way myself,” Mary Lou said.

“A dollar would buy a loaf of bread and some milk. It wasn’t too bad. Now, a dollar won’t even buy a Coke,” she said.

The couple say they’ve been blessed with good help throughout the years, and that each of their surviving six children still help them out around the house. One of their adult sons and his wife have been married for more than 51 years.

“I think the good Lord was looking out for us,” Ralph said.

Mary Lou emphasizes the secret to a long life is to stay away from having too much stress and to eat in moderation.

“If you can’t do anything about it, don’t try. If you can do something, then do it,” she said. “Don’t lay awake at night thinking about it. Worrying just hurts you.”

The couple doesn’t have any special diet that they follow. Mary Lou enjoys a sandwich from Schlotzsky’s once in a while, and Ralph’s favorite place to eat is Whataburger, he said.

“We eat what we like, but we try to be reasonable about it,” she said. “We eat what we want. If you have a big cake, don’t eat it all today.”

Mary Lou said that days just seem to fly by.

“We never have any trouble passing the time. We’re never bored,” she said.

“I dribble a basketball every day in the house,” Ralph said.

Ralph still mows the grass atop his tractor today and tended to his herd of between 15 and 20 cattle and horses until the year 2000, when he had some health issues.

“I had a heart attack,” Ralph said, “and we got rid of them.”

Today when Mary Lou isn’t making homemade applesauce for Ralph, her blackberry cobbler is a big hit among friends. In the last 40 years, she cared for Appaloosa horses, raised Jack Russell dogs, and even won the National Senior Olympic horseshoe championship.

She is resolute about attending United Methodist Church in Willis every Sunday.

“We’ve definitely been blessed by God,” she said. “You’re not in charge, he’s in charge.”

Surrounded by countless family photos and momentos, a 1914 player piano and other things collected through the years, Ralph and Mary Lou are happy.

“It’s kind of unusual,” Mary Lou said, referring to the length of their marriage.

“I don’t have a magic answer,” she said. “The grass isn’t any greener across the fence. There’s problems there, too. So, take care of your own.”